THE REMNANT
[p. 6] THE REMNANT
I am thinking, dear brethren, of the remnant. It is a leading subject in this book. You will all remember how that in chapter 7 the prophet is directed to meet Ahaz with his son Shear-jashub at the aqueduct on the highway of the fuller’s field. Shear-jashub signifies, “A remnant shall return”. In a large measure this is the key to this book. So that, applying it to our own times, and it does apply, the question is, Am I of that remnant? The remnant may be very small and despised, but when Sennacherib attacked it under Hezekiah, the virgin daughter of Zion is alluded to as ‘unconquered’, 2 Kings 19:21, (see note). So that it is a great honour to be in that remnant, and no believer in Christ can afford to be apart from it. It is unconquerable — corresponding in large measure to the first epistle of John, in which we are told that, “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” 1 John 5:4 — that which true, devoted followers of Christ hold on the principle of faith.
In speaking of the remnant, I wish to bring in what is in this chapter prominently — the idea of father and mother. You will observe that as following righteousness and seeking the Lord the saints are reminded of the ‘rock’ whence they were hewn, and of the ‘pit’ whence they were digged. The reference to hewing and digging is remarkable, the one not involving anything less honourable than the other, for they both allude to the great parents of the household of faith. I am not alluding to the fatherhood of God, but the fatherly element that is so essential to the promotion of faith proper to the remnant; for, as I hope to show, today it comes in for divine recognition as of the assembly, that which has the greatest place [p. 7] in relation to Christ. Where the assembly is left out in ministry, a great void is apparent and a great lack of power, too, for in the ministry of the Holy Spirit Christ in relation to the assembly has a great place. It is said of Him, “gave him to be head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all”. Ephesians 1:22,23.
To make the subject simple, the idea of father in Abraham may be connected with Corinthians; the idea of the mother belongs to Galatians. We shall not be in the remnant nor of it, according to God, save as we understand these epistles and they affect us. One leading idea of the father in the family is authority. Authority, of course, is vested in Christ in heaven, but then He has revested it down here. We are told that He gave His servants the authority; Mark 13:34. It works out in the way of authority in a family sense. Authority in a father is where it is least irksome; and nowhere is authority less irksome, normally, than in the assembly. It is not harsh, it is not arbitrary. What it is in Christ, it is in the assembly. It is there so much that it says that if a refractory one does not hear the assembly he is to be regarded as a heathen man and a publican; Matthew 18:17.
Refusing to listen to two brothers is serious, but refusing to hear the assembly is most grave. The assembly neither teaches nor preaches, but authority is exercised there. Teaching and preaching are by persons who have gift, but authority is vested in the assembly. So that one refusing to hear the assembly, or indeed those who are walking humbly in the light of it, is regarded as outside the pale, practically, of christian fellowship. The apostle Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, asserts the paternal principle as to himself. He says, “What will ye? Shall I come unto you with a rod?” 1 Corinthians 4:21. That is a father’s prerogative. And in verse 15 he says, “For though ye have ten thousand instructors, in Christ ... I have begotten you through the gospel”.
[p. 8] He was their spiritual father.
You will understand I am not referring to the fatherhood of God. It is a question of fatherly authority down here in the saints. Who had a better right with the Corinthians to take that attitude than the one through whom they had been converted, through whom they had been begotten in Christ Jesus through the gospel? “As my beloved sons”, he says, “I admonish you”. 1 Corinthians 4:14. No one can fully take that ground today, but; it will not do to assume that there is no such authority. I am afraid some young people do. The drift of things, even in a natural way, is to set aside authority altogether.
Then in the second epistle he intimates confidence in them. His first letter of fatherly authority had been effective. It had brought about mourning, etc., on account of the wickedness that had existed among them. And he says, “for an answering recompense, (I speak as to children,) let your heart also expand itself”. 2 Corinthians 6:13. Do you ever think of that, “Let your heart also expand itself”, as answering to the injunction of a father? As I said, no one could take that place exactly today, but let no one assume that there is no such thing as the fatherly element among the people of God. John says, “I write unto you, fathers”. 1 John 2:13. They would, because of their experience, have moral authority and would use it against evil among the people of God. God will not tolerate evil. It pains Him more in the christian than in any; it is more sorrowful there than elsewhere, and He “is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints”. Psalm 89:7.
So that we do well to take account of those in whom God has vested authority. It is not a question of officialism but of moral power and fatherly affection in those who, by experience, have come to love the saints, and correspondingly to hate what is of the world in them. “What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?” 2 Corinthians 6:14,15.
[p. 9] So that whilst there is the tenderest affection of a father in those marked by divine authority, there is the most stern refusal of the spirit of the world in the saints.
The world is an abhorrent thing in the saints, and God has vested authority in certain here to rebuke it. Abraham represents the thought of father. His name signifies ‘father of a multitude’. Names in Scripture mean something, the idea of father of the household of faith was represented in this man. Think of belonging to that household! Two belonging to it outwardly had to be cast out of it. A solemn thing! Hagar and Ishmael were cast out.
That brings me to Sarah, by whom the order to cast out Hagar and her son was given. That is Galatians. The honour given to her in the New Testament is remarkable, and I speak for a moment to sisters, young and old. The apostle Peter refers to holy women of old who hoped in God. I do not suppose that faith shines anywhere so beautifully as it does in a woman. Sarah is the first woman who is said to have faith. She was in the household of faith, she enjoyed being in it surely, it radiated in the household. You can understand how the great father, though he was childless for a long time, as soon as he had a family, would have the fatherly faith radiate from him in that household. But Sarah had faith all her own. I speak of this that the wives, the sisters, may cultivate faith of their own, so as to be true daughters of Sarah. There were holy women of old, who hoped in God, and among these Sarah is specially mentioned. How pleasing it must have been to God, that there was a link between Sarah’s own soul and Himself! It would coalesce with Abraham’s faith, of course, but she had her own faith in God. She is the one example given of the holy women of old.
[p. 10] There can be no mother according to God without faith in Him. Sarah is the true mother, and that comes to light in the confused state of things in the household. One does grieve for persons in a divided household. It is most difficult and testing, even if one wishes to be right in it. In the same house was Sarah with Isaac, the child of promise, and Ishmael, a boy of thirteen or fourteen years, and his mother, the bondmaid, and Abraham with his natural affections for Ishmael. The scene was darkened by nature in Abraham intruding itself where faith should have shone. We are reminded that the most spiritual of us may darken his house by allowing the natural where there should be the spiritual. But in these circumstances in Abraham’s house the light radiated, not through Abraham, but through Sarah, and so her words to her husband on that memorable occasion are regarded in Galatians as Scripture. How beautiful that is. God honoured her in that way. “Cast out this bondwoman and her son”. Genesis 21:10. These are the words of Sarah and they grieved Abraham; I do not like to dwell on what is discreditable to Abraham, but this is noted in Scripture. Were it not for Sarah the household would have continued in disunity and darkness. Think of Ishmael mocking the little babe of promise there! In type there was persecution of Christ. But Sarah expresses the mind of God and she says to Abraham, ‘Let it not grieve thee;’ How tender God is with the great patriarch! He would be so with anyone of us who may be darkening his household. ‘Hearken to all that Sarah thy wife hath said’.
That is what comes out in Galatians. The apostle Paul, changing the relationship, presents himself as a mother. The Galatians were slipping away from christianity, and he presents the maternal element. It is that love and care in those who would rescue saints from the legality which marks the so-called [p. 11] christian religions of this world — what the apostle calls “beggarly elements”. Galatians 4:9. He triumphantly says, “We are ... children of the free woman”. Galatians 4:31. Hagar answers to “Jerusalem which now is”. Galatians 4:25. Today this would include the accepted religions of this world around us. I would urge upon you, if there is one here who is in bondage to those systems, to take up your heritage — Jerusalem which is above. Thus you will be lifted out of the beggarly elements of human organisation and set up in what is above — what is morally elevated.
Here the saints are addressed as seeking righteousness. That is the first feature. You may not have it yet, but you are pursuing it, as we are enjoined to do in 2 Timothy 2:22. Being “clothed with righteousness” Psalm 132:9 means that I am a priest. And in conflict there can be no possibility of victory without “the breastplate of righteousness”. Ephesians 6:14. Well, that is the first thing, and then after Abraham and Sarah the great things that God has in view for us are brought in. Look at verse 3, “Jehovah shall comfort Zion, he shall comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Jehovah: gladness and joy shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of song”. Isaiah 51:3. Look at those promises, dear brethren!
The next thing is, “Listen unto me, my people”. Isaiah 51:4. God has something to say to us as in this relation. It is not like the book of Esther, where He hides His face. Here He is addressing the saints as His people and as His nation. That is because the traits of the remnant have come into evidence, answering to Christ. The Lord says to Philadelphia, “I also will keep thee ...” Revelation 3:10. That is very beautiful and comforting. It is the Lord’s recognition of the remnant, not simply as a remnant, but as the assembly. “I will make them to know that I have loved thee”, Revelation 3:9. And then He says here that He will give us a law (verse 4). The vast majority of christians are in organisations in which the law of God’s house has no place. It is man’s law, Here it speaks of His law. Of old the law was called a heritage, and so it is today. Those who love the Lord Jesus keep His commandments. They have discarded all others, which are largely the traditions of men. Here God says, “a law shall proceed from me, and I will establish my judgment for a light of the peoples”. Isaiah 51:4. Thus the people of God are furnished with regulation and light in their position in testimony in this dark world.
In verse 7 Jehovah says, “Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness”. Isaiah 51:7. Now you have another thing — the knowledge of righteousness. There are those that follow it and seek the Lord, and they are owned as a people and a nation; and then there are those who know it. There is thus an advance. God is watching the souls of His people and knows what progress they are making, and every bit of progress they make He owns; thus He says here, “Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness”. Isaiah 51:7. Do I know righteousness? That is a challenge! Practical righteousness is perhaps the scarcest thing in the world. It is valued of God. Of those who know righteousness, God says, “the people in whose heart is my law”. There is further progress owned here. They have been following righteousness, now they know it; also God’s law is in their hearts.
These things are very practical, dear brethren. Of the Lord it was said, “thy law is within my heart”. Psalm 40:8. He “loved righteousness and hast hated lawlessness”. Hebrews 1:9. What is said of the saints here corresponds with Him. That is what God seeks. As I said, righteousness is scarce, but there has never been a period in this world in which righteousness did not exist. Like the gold referred to in connection with the river which flowed from Eden, it is “good”. It is said, “the gold of that land is good”. Genesis 2:12. So is righteousness. Beginning with Abel it came down in the line of faith. As to [p. 13] moral things, righteousness is the standard of God. He speaks here of His righteousness. He says, “My righteousness is near”. Isaiah 51:5. It is an interesting thing to notice the difference between righteousness itself and God’s righteousness; the latter is like gold of the most precious kind. This afternoon we read about a certain amount of gold that David provided for the house, out of his affliction. But he also says that because of his affection for the house he provided of the gold of Ophir — evidently that was gold of the very best kind. God would impress the great value of righteousness upon us.
In verse 7 those that know righteousness, in whose heart is God’s law, are urged, “fear not the reproach of men, and be not afraid of their revilings”. Isaiah 51:7. Now you see, dear brethren, the order of the progress. Knowing righteousness and as maintaining the commandments of Christ we are under reproach. You will not find a company of God’s people who are governed by the commandments of Christ who are popular in their locality. They do not fit in at all. People will go a long way with you on the family line (and we should be prepared to go on the family line with them), but as we see with Jacob and Laban, as soon as Laban showed that he was under obligation, Jacob brought in the thought of Rachel, in type the assembly. As we serve believers near us as our relatives and they begin to recognise obligation, we may safely bring up the subject of the assembly, involving fellowship. Alas, this often means a break, for if they are not ready for the path of separation they turn away from you!
Those of us who seek to serve the Lord and the saints know the heart-burnings that follow upon bringing in the assembly. People cease to come to the meetings. But they are thus forfeiting what involves their greatest blessing and privilege. The assembly is dear to the heart of Christ, and those who [p. 14] are set for it come under His eye as of it and so draw out His deepest love and care. To them He says, “my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished”. Isaiah 51:8. Thus, dear brethren, we all need to maintain this by “the law of the house” Ezekiel 43:12, that is, the commandments of Christ as governing us in our fellowship.
How is it with all here? Some of us enjoy ministry, and the Lord is pleased to give it; but it has to be followed up, or it may be just something that pleases for the moment and is soon forgotten. You may say, ‘The path is too narrow’. But Christ is in it. He spoke of it Himself as narrow: “narrow is the way”. Matthew 7:14. Generally, “the way” stands for fellowship in Scripture. “They spake evil of that way”. Acts 19:9. What way was that? The broad way? No! The world does not speak evil of its own way. What was the way that was evil spoken of? The narrow way — that is the one that is hated and traduced everywhere; but it is the way of righteousness, the way of God. Fellowship is in it, the love of the saints is in it; it is a holy sphere for your affections in which to let themselves loose. Do not despise it. Go in for it.
So verse 7 says, “fear not the reproach of men, and be not afraid of their revilings”. Isaiah 51:7. Let us all face these things; they are the issue for the moment. One thinks with sorrow of the thousands of God’s people who are not in the fellowship of God’s Son and of His death. It is evil spoken of, as of old, but it was the way of God. Apollos came into it. Priscilla and Aquila “expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly”. Acts 18:26. Many of the saints need that service; indeed, we may be in the way, but understand it very poorly, and so need to be taught it more perfectly. If anyone is not in it, may he come into it at once! It is a way that is evil spoken of, but it is “the way of God”.